Flags were flown at half-mast in gendarme stations across France as the country honoured the officer declared a national hero by President Emmanuel Macron after he swapped himself for a hostage and was killed by an Islamist gunman. “Arnaud Beltrame died in the service of the nation to which he had already given so much," Mr Macron said. "In giving his life to end the deadly plan of a jihadi terrorist, he fell as a hero." The 45-year-old Lieutenant Colonel in the gendarmerie died in hospital overnight from gun wounds after he offered himself in exchange for a hostage held by an attacker holed up in a supermarket in the southwestern town of Trèbes on Friday. Arnaud Beltrame, 45, took the place of a woman who gunman Radouane Lakdim was holding as a hostage Credit: AP Unbeknownst to his Morocco-born captor, who had by then killed three people in a shooting spree and wounded 16 more, he left his mobile phone on so police outside could hear what was happening inside the store. They stormed the building when they heard gunfire – the gunman shot and stabbed his captive – and shot dead the hostage-taker. Mr Beltrame was taken out alive and transported by helicopter to a nearby hospital, but died a few hours later. Carcassonne shooing – locator map They stormed the building when they heard gunfire and shot dead the hostage-taker. But Mr Beltrame was wounded in the intervention and died hours later. Tributes to the dead officer, who first took his place among the elite police special forces in 2003 and was decorated in 2007 after serving in Iraq, flooded in on Saturday morning as the country woke to the news of his death. The president was among the first to respond, with a long statement listing the gendarme’s glittering career – which included four years handling security at the Elysée – and saying he “deserved the respect and admiration of the entire nation.” The officer’s name was the top trending hashtag on the French edition of Twitter, with members of the public in France and around the world paying tribute to what many of them called a “true hero.” Police gather outside a supermarket in Trebes Credit: AP The name of the 25-year-old Islamist hostage-taker, Redouane Lakdim, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State, was the second most used term on Twitter. It was General Richard Lizurey, the director general of the national gendarmerie, who ordered the French tricolour to be flown at half-mast at stations across the country, saying he wanted to pay “solemn homage to the heroism of our comrade.” Arnaud Beltrame was killed after swapping himself for a hostage in the town of Trebes, southwestern France Credit: AFP Locals placed flowers on the ground outside the barracks in the town of Carcassonne where Mr Beltrame was based. “At school, we were very scared," read one note placed by the flowers and signed by a little girl named Lilou. "You were very brave." “He gave his life for someone else, for a stranger,” said the officer’s brother Cédric. “He departed as a hero.” Mr Beltrame’s mother, speaking late on Friday while her son was still fighting for his life in hospital, said that when she heard the news that a gendarme had swapped himself for a hostage, she immediately “knew it was him.” “He’s always been like that. He is someone… who would do anything for his country,” she said. Gendarmes and police officers at a supermarket after a hostage situation in Trebes Credit: REUTERS Mr Beltrame, who was married with no children, graduated from France’s elite Saint-Cyr military academy in 1999. He later trained for the elite GIGN police force that specialises in counter-terrorism and hostage rescue, and at one point trained to become a military freefall parachutist, a type of high-altitude parachuting most often carried out by special forces. He worked as an advisor at the ecology ministry for three years before going back to field work last year in the Aude region where his final – and fatal – intervention took place on Friday. Mr Beltrame had organised a training session in the region in December for just such a hostage situation. At the time, he armed his officers with paintball guns, according to Depeche du Midi, the local newspaper. "We want to be as close to real conditions as possible," he said then. The identities of the three other fatal casualties of Friday’s attacks have been made public. Jean Mazières, a winemaker in his 60s, was the first to die when Lakdim hijacked the car he was travelling in in Carcassonne and shot him dead. The driver of the car, a Portuguese national, was seriously injured. Christian Medves was the butcher in the Super U shop in Trèbes. He was shot in the head when the attacker burst into the supermarket Hervé Sosna, a retired bricklayer, was a customer standing next to Medves when he was gunned down. Investigators probing Friday’s attack are focusing on establishing how the gunman, who was known to police for petty crime and drug dealing, got his weapon and how he became radicalised. Radouane Lakdim, who authorities have named as the 26-year-old attacker responsible for the death of at least three people in southwest France Credit: AFP Police searching his home found notes referring to Isil that appeared to be a final testament. Two people have been detained over alleged links with a terrorist enterprise, one woman close to Lakdim and one friend of his, a 17-year-old male, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

Just over a week after a sting attempt on The Washington Post apparently tied to Project Veritas spectacularly backfired, Project Veritas President James O’Keefe was honored as a “hero” by the conservative group United for Purpose.

Terrorist or coup suspects will be made to wear special uniforms when they appear in court, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said, after a defendant showed up for trial last month with a T-shirt that said "Hero" on it. Mr Erdogan, who said last month that suspects in the failed 2016 military coup should be given jumpsuits like those worn by detainees at the US military prison in Guantanamo, said on Saturday that the new regulation clothing would be brown. Erdogan waves to his supporters as he arrives to commemorate the one year anniversary of the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt Credit: AP "No more coming dressed as they will," Mr Erdogan said in a speech in the eastern town of Malatya on Saturday. Defendants accused of being involved in the failed military coup would wear jumpsuits, while terrorism suspects would wear jackets and trousers, he added. "They will be introduced to the world like that. Now they will show off this way," he said. Since the July 15, 2016 coup attempt more than 50,000 people have been detained and 150,000 people suspended in a crackdown which has drawn criticism from some Western allies. Turkey says it is a justified response to the threat the country faces. The "Hero" T-shirt worn by a defendant in a trial of coup suspects three weeks ago led to a heated argument inside the courtroom and the judge briefly suspended the hearing. Several people were detained by police across the country in the following days for wearing the same T-shirts, Turkish media reported.